his year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region
(HKSAR). To celebrate, the HKSAR Government takes great pleasure in presenting a number of specially
curated film programs on Hong Kong cinema in 10 cities across Europe, North America, and South Korea, in
addition to four cities in Mainland China and in Hong Kong. For us, it is a timely occasion for introspection.

Indeed, such programming is particularly significant as the past two decades have seen major changes in Hong Kong
cinema, brought about by digital evolution and related technological advancement, regional financial shifts and market
changes, and by a new generation of young Hong Kong filmmakers and audiences exploring the boundaries of cinema.
If pre-1997 Hong Kong cinema excelled in its genre diversity and auteur elements wrapped in easily approachable and
exportable commercialism, then post-1997 Hong Kong cinema has built on its past legacies with an increasingly personal
style of filmmaking by established talents from the 1980s and early 1990s. Added to them is an entourage of fresh
talents emerging from the new millennium to rework or subvert the older traditions, in Hong Kong and in Mainland
China. For Hong Kong cinema, two generations of filmmakers are converging and expanding in creativity in 2017.
Against such background, we present Creative Visions: Hong Kong Cinema 1997 – 2017. Our heartfelt thanks go to
the various film organizations in the featured cities for hosting the film programs, our Hong Kong Economic and Trade
Offices, and the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society for its tremendous efforts as project manager in making
these film programs a reality.

FAR EAST FILM FESTIVA
21 - 29 April 2017 | UDINE, ITALY

We wish audiences a wonderful time.

FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL

Jerry Liu
Head of Create Hong Kong

21 - 29 April 2017 | UDINE, ITALY

Creative Visions: Hong Kong Cinema 1997-2017 is an accredited event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the
establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Reinventing his own childhood experiences for the film, writer-director Alex Law’s
affecting third feature - produced by his frequent collaborator, director Mabel Cheung - is
a love letter to Hong Kong of the 1960s. “Big Ears,” the film’s eccentric, eight-year-old
hero, runs around his neighbourhood with a goldfish bowl on his head for an astronaut’s
helmet. He has a hard-working shoemaker for a father, an easy-going mother, and an
athletic older brother he looks up to. With measured sentimentality, we see the closeknit family weather the storms of the rocky ’60s. Shot mainly on set – a nod to the Hong
Kong studio pictures of the era it warmly recreates – Law’s deeply-personal film evokes
a charmed nostalgia for a bygone innocence. Winner of the Crystal Bear for Best Film in
the children and youth section at Berlin. Print: Mei Ah Entertainment Group Co., Ltd
THURSDAY, JUNE 1
OPENING NIGHT
6:30 PM - RECEPTION
7:30 PM - SCREENING OF ECHOES OF A RAINBOW
INTRODUCED BY ALEX LAW AND MABEL CHEUNG
SATURDAY, JUNE 3 - 6:30 PM
Q&A WITH ALEX LAW AND MABEL CHEUNG FOLLOWING SCREENING

功夫

Kung Fu Hustle
(Gong fu)

Hong Kong 2004. Dir: Stephen Chow. 95 min. 35mm

One-man band Stephen Chow co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the boxoffice behemoth Kung Fu Hustle, a film that knocked Chow’s own Shaolin Soccer
(2001) off the podium for the highest grossing domestically-made movie in Hong
Kong history. None of its commercial success would be possible were the film not
guffawing in its satire and spectacularly madcap in its action… which of course it
is! Most indelible are the playful homages to a roll call of cinema classics, from
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining to King Hu’s Dragon Inn, and its heart-on-sleeve tribute
to the kung fu “hustlers” of yesteryear (industry veterans Yuen Qiu, Yuen Wah, and
Leung Siu all feature). “Like Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton meet Quentin Tarantino
and Bugs Bunny” (Roger Ebert). Print courtesy TIFF’s Film Reference Library.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3 – 4:30 PM & 9:10 PM

香港製造

Made in Hong Kong
(Heung Gong jai jo)

Hong Kong 1997. Dir: Fruit Chan. 109 min. DCP

The Hong Kong depicted in no-budget director Fruit Chan’s landmark film is rougher,
and realer, than the Hong Kong of countryman John Woo’s higher-profile cinema. Made
in Hong Kong chronicles the exploits of three lower-class teenagers looking to escape
their dead-end lives. There are no seductive nightscapes or cathartic gun battles here,
just menacing housing projects and a dirty harbour full of broken dreams. Shot on a
miniscule budget using leftover film stock, Made in Hong Kong is a true independent film
that channels the rebellious, resilient spirit of its namesake city. “Possibly Hong Kong’s
most acclaimed indie feature ever . . . A striking achievement” (Edmund Lee, Time Out).
FRIDAY, JUNE 9 - 6:30 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 10 - 8:20 PM

The New Territories town of Tin Shui Wai witnessed several small tragedies in the mid2000s, causing the Hong Kong media to dub it “the City of Sadness.” New Wave stalwart
Ann Hui offers a gentle rebuke to that hysteria with this artful, slice-of-life drama about a
widow (Paw Hee-Ching) and her teenage son (Leung Chun-lung) who live in a Tin Shui Wai
housing estate. Quietly and subtly, their lives unfold. The Way We Are is an ode to the
salt of the earth, and the simple poetry of everyday life. “Ann Hui depicts a warm world
situated between Yasujiro Ozu and Ken Loach in a film that blends kitchen-sink drama
with poetic minutiae” (Russell Edwards, Variety). Print: Mega-Vision Pictures Limited
THURSDAY, JUNE 15 - 6:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 16 - 8:45 PM

3

桃姐

A Simple Life
(Tou ze)

Hong Kong 2011. Dir: Ann Hui. 118 min. DCP

International awards, universal acclaim, exceptional box-office receipts: veteran auteur
Ann Hui’s A Simple Life has proven itself to be the little Hong Kong film that could.
This deceptively simple story about Ah Tao (Deanie Ip, crowned Best Actress at
Venice), longtime family servant to the film’s real-life producer Roger Lee (Andy Lau),
is raised to remarkable heights by its rich cultural detail and Ann Hui’s perceptive,
low-key direction. One of the year’s top domestic hits, A Simple Life collected
statuettes at the Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor,
and Screenplay. “An exquisite and wise moment of celluloid portraiture” (Trevor
Johnston, Time Out). “Venice was right to name Ip Best Actress – her performance
here is one of the best by any actress in 2011, Hollywood included” (Roger Clarke,
Sight & Sound). Screening courtesy of Distribution Workshop Limited.
THURSDAY, JUNE 15 - 8:20 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 16 - 6:30 PM

In Person: Heiward Mak

烈日當空

High Noon
(Lit yat dong hung)

Hong Kong 2008. Dir: Heiward Mak. 100 min. 35mm

Heiward Mak’s harrowing and provocative directorial debut bears testimony to
the saying: “The kindness of the gods is manifested in allowing young people to
embark on life unprepared.” Shot on DVCAM and released when Mak was still in
her early twenties, High Noon spins a web of vignettes around seven idle high
school students (with names like Soy Sauce and Smoothie) about to take a major
public exam. Clever, humorous, angry, and dangerous, this is Oshima’s Cruel Story
of Youth (1960) for the “Me Generation.” “Adopts a touch of Wong Kar-wai’s
trademark neon-smeared impressionism . . . Young Mak is one to watch” (Rob Nelson,
Variety). Print and screening courtesy of Mei Ah Entertainment Group Co., Ltd
THURSDAY, JUNE 22 - 6:30 PM

Q&A WITH HEIWARD MAK FOLLOWING SCREENING
FRIDAY, JUNE 23 - 6:30 PM

INTRODUCED BY HEIWARD MAK

踏血尋梅

Port of Call
(Daap hyut cam mui)

Hong Kong 2015. Dir: Philip Yung. 98 min. DCP

A teenage prostitute is murdered and her body disposed of in grisly fashion. Director
Philip Yung (Glamorous Youth) chooses to focus not on the crime or the investigation,
but on the dead girl and her family, the cop and his family, and the killer, who is without
family. The result, evocatively lensed by Wong Kar-wai DP Christopher Doyle, is a
genre-bender that progresses as it digresses, an atmospheric mosaic of complicated,
chaotic human lives and actions, with the characters firmly grounded in gritty and
unforgiving reality. “Yung’s talents take a confident step forward, shoring up his
position as one of the most distinctive voices in Hong Kong cinema today” (James
Marsh, Screen Daily). Screening courtesy of Mei Ah Entertainment Group Co., Ltd
THURSDAY, JUNE 22 - 8:45 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 23 - 8:45 PM

Want to earn your stripes as one of the city’s most diehard
cinephiles? Test your mettle with 24 consecutive hours of essential
cinema? It’s back! After a two-year hiatus – and overwhelming
demand! – The Cinematheque is once again serving up a sleepdepriving cinematic feast for adventurous Vancouver film fans. Up
on the screen: a carefully-curated lineup of (top-secret) movies
from a variety of genres, eras, and places. Under your bum: our
new, comfy, more-marathon-friendly seats. There will be prizes,
special guests, craft beer happy hour, tasty treats, a power nap
zone, and more! Blankets and pillows recommended!
Tickets: $45
Secure your spot online. Seating is limited.

NEW CINEMA

“Arguably the most precise expression of Reichardt’s vision
to date.” – Alice Gregory, New York Times
“In the pantheon of Reichardt, Certain Women ranks up there with her most
complete and captivating work.” – April Wolfe, Village Voice
“Kelly Reichardt fashions a minor miracle . . . An unassuming
masterpiece.” – Wendy Ide, The Guardian
One of the top five films of 2016 – Film Comment, Sight & Sound
Vancouver Premiere! Exclusive First Run!

Certain Women
USA 2016. Dir: Kelly Reichardt. 107 min. DCP

The remarkable new feature by Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy), America’s indispensable indie
auteur, is another masterpiece of intimate, understated cinema from the criminally-consistent filmmaker. Based
on a trio of Montana-set short stories by Maile Meloy (a departure from the Oregon-set source material of Jon
Raymond, who collaborated with Reichardt on her previous four films), Certain Women weaves, with tenderness
and dramatic restraint, the intersecting tales of four women over a winter season. Laura Dern is an attorney
embroiled in a client’s crisis; Michele Williams (Reichardt’s regular thesp) is a wife, mother, and boss reclaiming
sandstone for a second home; and Kristen Stewart is a newly-barred lawyer teaching part-time in a small town,
with Lily Gladstone (a revelation) as a lonely, local farmhand attending her class. Though the plot points
are few, Reichardt’s brilliance comes from her ability to elicit poetry from the moments in between – from
the quiet labours of everyday life. Unavailable for last year's Reichardt retrospective at The Cinematheque,
this rich, deeply-rewarding film, one of the best of 2016, is finally receiving its Vancouver premiere.
FRIDAY, MAY 19 – 6:30 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 20 – 4:00 PM & 6:30 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 21 – 4:00 PM & 6:30 PM
MONDAY, MAY 22 – 8:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24 – 6:30 PM
THURSDAY, MAY 25 – 8:30 PM

5

Canada on Screen

Canada à l’écran

A year-long program celebrating Canada’s 150th
birthday and its rich cinematic heritage

The Cinematheque is proud to celebrate Canada’s 2017
sesquicentennial with Canada on Screen, an exciting national
initiative co-produced by TIFF, The Cinematheque, Library
and Archives Canada, and the Cinémathèque québécoise.
Canada on Screen is the most ambitious retrospective of Canada’s
moving-image heritage ever mounted. In honour of Canada’s
150th birthday, a list of Canada’s 150 essential moving-image
works, based on a countrywide poll of critics, scholars, and industry
professionals, has been compiled across nine categories: feature
films, documentaries, shorts, animation, experimental film and
video, moving-image installations, music videos, commercials, and
television shows. These 150 masterworks, many of them newly
restored, will made available to Canadians everywhere in 2017.
A full list of the essential 150 is available at tiff.net/canadaonscreen
Throughout the year, The Cinematheque will be presenting special
free screenings showcasing many of these 150 works. Please
join us and discover – or rediscover – the breadth, boldness, and
wealth of Canada’s cinema history, a remarkable cultural legacy.

A key work of feminist cinema in Canada, Anne Claire Poirier’s
frank, forceful drama about the personal experience and wider
political meaning of rape is a film of radical style and structure
and, at times, harrowing imagery. Suzanne (Julie Vincent),
a nurse, is violently assaulted one night after leaving work.
Severely traumatized, she has difficulty coping with life in the
aftermath. In a parallel story, two filmmakers (Monique Miller
and Micheline Lanctôt) make a documentary about Suzanne;
their debate about how to present these events is used for a
broader social, cultural, and political inquiry into violence against
women. The film was shot by Michel Brault. “Uncompromising
. . . One of the most innovative and challenging fiction films ever
produced at the NFB” (André Loiselle, Canadian Journal of Film
Studies). Warning: Contains scenes of disturbing violence.

In Montreal animator Michèle Cournoyer’s raw, troubling film,
rendered in stark, fluid, black-ink-on-paper drawings, an exotic
dancer recalls a childhood incident in which she was sexually
abused by a man. The film’s numerous national and international
honours include the Best Canadian Short award at TIFF in 2000.
THURSDAY, MAY 4 – 7:00 PM

Long live the new flesh! Long live David Cronenberg’s most
influential and conceptually ingenious film! James Woods stars as
Max Renn, owner of a sleazy Toronto cable-TV channel. Discovering
mysterious satellite transmissions of graphic, plotless sexual violence,
Max figures it’s the perfect thing to boost his station’s ratings –
and soon finds himself enmeshed in a sinister global conspiracy
to control minds. Deborah Harry co-stars as a sadomasochistic
psychiatrist. Max’s transformation into a flesh-and-blood VCR is
one of the quintessential representations of body horror, and of the
fusion of man and machine, in Cronenberg. Andy Warhol described
Videodrome as “A Clockwork Orange of the ’80s.” Truly visionary!

Atom Egoyan’s low-budget marvel, made between The Adjuster
and Exotica, is simultaneously one of his most playful and most
rigorous films. Egoyan himself, in a rare onscreen role, is a Toronto
photographer travelling with his wife (Arsinée Khanjian, Egoyan’s wife)
in Armenia. He’s there to shoot a series of historic churches for a
calendar; he soon begins to suspect that he may also be documenting
the disintegration of his marriage. Egoyan’s wry film, structured in
Peter Greenaway-like fashion (12 months, 12 churches, 12 dinner dates,
12 phone messages) makes characteristically complex use of time and
space and film and video, and has a warm, intimate, improvisational
feel. “A flat-out masterpiece” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader).

Made on a micro-budget by two Ryerson University film
students, this innovative tale of life and love in our digital age
unfolds entirely on a teen’s computer screen (and inspired a
2015 episode of Modern Family). Best Canadian Short, TIFF
2013. Canadian Screen Award, Best Live Action Short, 2014.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14 – 7:00 PM

Canadian master Michael Snow’s 1967 milestone is one of avantgarde cinema’s most celebrated and influential works. The film
consists of a single, continuous, 45-minute zoom shot across a
room (the artist’s New York loft), set to a steadily increasing sine
wave of sound. There are several episodes of human “drama”
and various structuralist elements (superimpositions, splicey
jumps, variations in light, colour, and film stock) disrupting things
along the way. “Wavelength is without precedent in the purity
of its confrontation with the essence of cinema: the relationships
between illusion and fact, space and time, subject and object. It is
the first post-Warhol, post-Minimal movie” (Gene Youngblood).

The debut film of Alberta-born, B.C.-based artist and poet Ellie Epp is
a work of unparalleled lyricism in Canadian cinema, experimental or
otherwise. Shot on 16mm in London (but completed in Vancouver),
the film consists of twelve elegant, elliptical scenes at a public
bath house, separated by lengths of blank leader that underscore
the images’ material substrate. A self-acknowledged “battle
between structuralism and beauty,” Trapline distinguished Epp as
an artist of uncommon tenderness and intellectual quietude.
In Person: Ellie Epp (to be confirmed)

This landmark film by Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin, one
of Canada’s most respected documentarians, provides a powerful,
passionate, behind-the-barricades look at Canada’s Oka crisis of
1990, in which Quebec Mohawks faced provincial police and the
Canadian military in an armed stand-off lasting 78 nerve-wracking
days and nights. The conflict was triggered by the planned
expansion of a golf-course development onto traditional Mohawk
lands. The film, which situates the conflict within the larger
historical context of a centuries-long struggle, won the prizes for
Best Canadian Feature at TIFF and Best Documentary at VIFF.

A pioneering work of computer animation, Hungarian-born Peter
Foldès’s wordless tale of gluttony in a world of widespread hunger
was produced by the National Film Board of Canada and made with
technology developed at the National Research Council. The film
won a Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar.

The cinema of Croatia – an independent republic since 1991 and a member of the European Union since 2013 – is spotlighted in this three-film
series presented in Vancouver by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to Canada (Ottawa) and The Cinematheque.

Sonja and
the Bull
(Sonja i bik)

Croatia 2012. Dir: Vlatka Vorkapić. 103 min. DCP

A young animal-rights activist in Zagreb
and a rural community in Croatia’s Dalmatia
region are at odds in writer-director Vlatka
Vorkapić’s good-natured romantic comedy
(her debut feature), a major box-office hit
at home. After Sonja (Judita Franković,
who also appears in Children of the Fall)
raises a ruckus in the city about traditional
bullfighting (which in Dalmatia pits bull
against bull), angry villagers dispatch
handsome salesman Ante (Goran Bogdan)
to bring her back to their community
and test her mettle. “This film gives a
sensitive look at old-world tradition versus
modern-day values, providing insights and
approaches that should stimulate debate.
Strong performances from both leads
anchor the film, along with a solid turn
from Garonja the bull. Funny, charming,
undeniably beautiful, Sonja and The
Bull is a highlight of Croatian filmmaking”
(Astrid Bulmer, Raindance Film Festival).
TUESDAY, MAY 16 – 7:00 PM

Lea and Darija
(Lea i Darija)

Croatia 2011. Dir: Branko Ivanda. 101 min. DCP

The magical world of musical theatre is
invaded by the terrible realities of war
in veteran filmmaker Branko Ivanda’s
captivating and polished Croatian drama,
based on the true story of two 13-year-olds
who were stars of the stage in late-1930s
Zagreb. Lea Deutsch (Klara Naka), a young
Jewish girl known as the “Croatian Shirley
Temple,” and Darija Gasteiger (Tamy Zajec),
an ethnic German who was her friend,
rival, and dancing partner, were headliners
in the “Children’s Realm” of the Croatian
National Theatre. The two gained fame
across Europe for their irresistible talents.
Their popularity provides only so much
protection with the coming of war and Nazi
domination, which tests the girls’ friendship
and sees them resorting to ever-more
desperate measures in order to survive.
TUESDAY, MAY 23 – 7:00 PM

Children of
the Fall
(Djeca jeseni)

Croatia 2013. Dir: Goran Rukavina. 100 min. DCP

Popular Croatian actor Leon Lučev plays a
forensic analyst who refuses to accept the
reality of an apparent personal tragedy in
Goran Rukavina’s moody psychological drama,
the director’s feature debut. “Three years ago,
Marko’s wife disappeared on a mountaineering
expedition. Her body has never been found.
Family friend Lidija [Sonja and the Bull star
Judita Franković] helps Marko raise his 11-yearold daughter, Marija. Marko is trying a little
too hard to keep his life exactly as it was when
his wife vanished. Marija and Lidija are ready
to move on, but can’t ignore the emotional
burden left by the missing woman. Mysterious
letters begin arriving each month, ostensibly
from Marko’s wife, and an unpredictable turn
of events reveals that Marko may know more
about the vanished woman’s fate than he’s
been letting on” (Croatian Audiovisual Centre).
TUESDAY, MAY 30 – 7:00 PM

9

SUN

1

TICKETS

HOW TO BUY TICKETS

MON

7

MAY

Bruno Dumont

P’tit Quinquin – 7:00 pm

TUES

2

3

For May 1 film description, please consult our
previous program guide or visit theCinematheque.ca

9

8

ALL SCREENINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO 18+

THURS

4

DIM Cinema

Olivia Boudreau:
Intervals – 7:30 pm

10

FRI

Canada on Screen

Mourir à tue-tête
+ The Hat – 7:00 pm

11

DOXA DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Day–of tickets go on sale at the Box Office 30
minutes before the first show of the evening.
Advance tickets are available for credit card
purchase at theCinematheque.ca ($1 service
charge applies). Events, times, and prices are
subject to change without notice.

The Cinematheque is recognized as an exempt
non–profit film society under the B.C. Motion
Picture Act, and as such is able to screen films
that have not been reviewed by the B.C. Film
Classification Office. Under the act, all persons
attending cinematheque screenings must be
members of the Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique
Society and be 18 years of age or older, unless
otherwise indicated.

For May 1 film description, please consult our
previous program guide or visit theCinematheque.ca

9

8

ALL SCREENINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO 18+

THURS

4

DIM Cinema

Olivia Boudreau:
Intervals – 7:30 pm

10

FRI

Canada on Screen

Mourir à tue-tête
+ The Hat – 7:00 pm

11

DOXA DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Day–of tickets go on sale at the Box Office 30
minutes before the first show of the evening.
Advance tickets are available for credit card
purchase at theCinematheque.ca ($1 service
charge applies). Events, times, and prices are
subject to change without notice.

The Cinematheque is recognized as an exempt
non–profit film society under the B.C. Motion
Picture Act, and as such is able to screen films
that have not been reviewed by the B.C. Film
Classification Office. Under the act, all persons
attending cinematheque screenings must be
members of the Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique
Society and be 18 years of age or older, unless
otherwise indicated.

erhaps no other filmmaker has mined the interior life with more success — and more wit, irony, and
intelligence — than Eric Rohmer. His sublime cinema navigates the gaps that exist between our
thoughts, our feelings, and our actions — the differences between what we think and what we feel,
between what we say and what we do. It is an intimate, literate, and remarkably nuanced cinema, revealing
an artist with the deftness and depth of a great novelist, an artist more than worthy of the impressive literary
comparisons (Stendhal, Balzac, Pascal, Jane Austen, Henry James et al.) so often invoked to describe his work.
In 1981, following his exquisite Six Moral Tales and a pair of period dramas (including 1976’s The Marquise of O,
to screen later this year), Rohmer embarked on a new six-film cycle entitled Comedies and Proverbs (Comédies
et proverbes), with each installment framed by a well-known – or in one case, made-up – aphorism. Imbued with
what Rohmer called “the spirit of social games,” the series, completed in 1987, continued the director’s fascination
with romantic pursuits and beach vacations, bien sûr. But it distinguished itself from his previous cycle by
adopting a more distanced, ironic point of view, subtly shifting the perspective away from its protagonists. It
also, notably, centred mainly on female characters, a deliberate departure from the male-centric world of the
Moral Tales. Anchored by commanding, career-best turns from Béatrice Romand, Marie Rivière, and Pascale Ogier
(in her final screen role), Comedies and Proverbs demonstrated Rohmer’s almost preternatural ability to create
dynamic, complex, and sympathetically-flawed film heroines, driven by desires that most often go unattained.

ROHMER IN
RETROSPECT!

This exhibition of Eric Rohmer’s Comedies and Proverbs
is part of an ongoing Rohmer retrospective being
presented at The Cinematheque in 2017. Rohmer’s Six
Moral Tales screened in our March/April program.

Pauline at
the Beach

(Pauline à la plage)
France 1982. Dir: Eric Rohmer.
95 min. 35mm

“A wagging tongue bites itself.”
This sensuous, sun-drenched roundelay, chronologically
the third film in Rohmer’s Comedies and Proverbs
cycle, is set on the beaches of Normandy, and earned
Rohmer Best Director honours at Berlin in 1983. Young
Pauline (Amanda Langlet) and older cousin Marion
(Arielle Dombasle) arrive for a two-week holiday at
the family cottage, and become entangled in various
romantic complications with men. For the 15-year-old
title character, the summer becomes an education in
the messy adult world of love, lust, and deception. The
Matisse-inspired visuals are by master cinematographer
Nestor Almendros, in his final work with Rohmer. The
film, characteristically witty, nuanced, and literate,
was Rohmer’s biggest North American hit. “A brilliant
erotic comedy . . . It’s the perfect summer art-house
movie” (David Denby, New York magazine).
FRIDAY, JUNE 2 – 6:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 – 8:30 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 8 – 6:30 PM

12

The Aviator’s
Wife
(La femme de
l’aviateur)

France 1980. Dir: Eric Rohmer. 104 min. DCP

“It is impossible to think of nothing.” The
first of Eric Rohmer’s six-film series Comedies and
Proverbs is a droll and delightful comedy of manners. A
jealous law student (Philippe Marlaud, who died tragically
shortly after the film’s release) enlists the help of a
vivacious schoolgirl (Anne-Laure Meury) in spying on
his girlfriend (The Green Ray’s Marie Rivière), whom he
believes has resumed a love affair with a married pilot
(Mathieu Carrière). The director renders this Parisset tale of romantic intrigue and misunderstanding
with his customary wit, irony, and warmth, and elicits
touching performances from his young cast. “A hilarious,
wonderfully bittersweet acknowledgement of the chasms
between people trying to understand and be understood”
(Geoff Andrew, Time Out). “A perfect film . . .
Charming, languorous, piercing, discreet – quintessential
Rohmer and more” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).
FRIDAY, JUNE 2 – 8:25 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 – 6:30 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 8 – 8:25 PM

Rohmer invented his own pithy proverb – “He who
has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses him
mind” – for the superb fourth entry in his Comedies and Proverbs
cycle, a wry, rather downbeat look at youth in (and out of) love
set amid Paris’s chic, nocturnal social scene of the mid-1980s. In a
scenario easily suited to a Moral Tale – save for the gender reversal
– Full Moon centres on a young, restless art-school graduate (Pascale
Ogier), who, feeling stifled by the suburbs and her doting, live-in
boyfriend, decides to set up a posh pied-à-terre in downtown Paris
where she can entertain her independence. Twenty-five-year-old
Ogier, crowned Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, is utterly
captivating in the role, tragically her last (she died of a drug overdose
shortly after the film’s release). “A small masterpiece . . . Ranks
with the very best of Rohmer” (Vincent Canby, New York Times).
SATURDAY, JUNE 17 – 6:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 18 – 4:30 PM & 8:25 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 19 – 6:30 PM

A Good Marriage
(Le beau mariage)

France 1982. Dir: Eric Rohmer. 97 min. DCP

Béatrice Romand, once the adolescent
ingénue of Rohmer’s Claire’s Knee, is now a
sophisticated young woman with matrimony
on the mind in A Good Marriage, Rohmer’s
charming second chapter in the Comedies and Proverbs cycle.
Twentysomething art-history student Sabine (Romand), fed up
with being the mistress to a married Parisian painter, shocks her
paramour – and then her best friend (peppy Arielle Dombasle) and
family – with news of her impending marriage. To whom? She
doesn’t yet know. But her friend’s lawyer cousin, met briefly
at a party, seems to satisfy the knot-tying criteria. Operating
under the idiom “Can any of us refrain from building castles in
Spain?”, Rohmer fashions in the character of Sabine one of his
most endearing, contradictory comic heroines: impulsive yet
pragmatic, naïve yet acutely self-aware. Romand’s tightrope
performance deservedly won acclaim and a prize at Venice. “The
best film of the year” (Andrew Sarris, Village Voice).
SATURDAY, JUNE 17 – 8:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 18 – 6:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 19 – 8:30 PM

The Green Ray
aka Summer
(Le rayon vert)

France 1986. Dir: Eric Rohmer. 96 min. DCP

Summer à la Eric Rohmer is a guarantee of
brilliance. Made three years after Pauline
at the Beach (and originally released in North
America as Summer), The Green Ray epitomizes the wondrous
talents of the late, great director. Rohmer’s tale, the fifth in his
Comedies and Proverbs cycle, takes its operative aphorism from
Rimbaud: “Ah, for the days/That set our hearts ablaze.” Rohmer
regular Marie Rivière, who co-wrote, is entrancing as shy Parisian
secretary Delphine, unexpectedly companionless just as she’s about
to embark on August vacation. Her dispirited travels in search of
romance leads to a fascination with the elusive, allegedly magical
optical phenomenon – the last flash of sunset – of the title. Rohmer’s
radiant film won the Golden Lion at Venice. “Rohmer’s ultimate
masterwork . . . This beauty has simply walked out of the water and
onto the beach like a Botticelli Venus” (Andrew Sarris, Village Voice).
SATURDAY, JUNE 24 – 6:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 25 – 4:30 PM & 8:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 30 – 6:30 PM

The most delightful chapter in Rohmer’s Comedies and Proverbs
cycle is also the last, bringing the acclaimed series to a close with
a playful dose of jeu d’esprit that would surely make the French
filmmaker’s idol, Hollywood screwball-comedy king Howard Hawks,
proud. Set in the insular, ultra-modern Paris suburb of CergyPontoise, this cool, clever comedy of manners concerns a group of
young, amorously-obedient professionals who harbour mismatched
emotions for each other’s significant others. “My friend’s friend is my
friend” is the fim's ironic proverb, although “All’s fair in love and war”
would easily suffice. As in Full Moon in Paris, Rohmer fills the frame
with vapid, postmodern décors to underscore the era’s consumerism,
with each character colour-coded to match the mise-en-scène. A
light, compactly-crafted charmer from the veteran auteur, My
Girlfriend’s Boyfriend is “full of unexpected delights … It’s 102
minutes; they are all wonderful” (Vincent Canby, New York Times).
SATURDAY, JUNE 24 – 8:25 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 25 – 6:30 PM
FRIDAY, JUNE 30 – 8:25 PM

13

RESTORATIONS
REVIVALS
ESSENTIAL CINEMA

New Restoration! Complete, Uncut, Uncensored Version!

Beat the Devil

USA/Great Britain/Italy 1954. Dir: John Huston. 93 min. DCP

Absolutely the oddest of the celebrated John Huston-Humphrey Bogart collaborations,
the Truman Capote-penned Beat the Devil is an absurdist send-up of the type of
atmospheric thriller (The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo et al.) for which director and star
were renowned. Bogart leads a cast of colourful rogue characters who set sail from
Italy for British East Africa, hoping to make a major uranium score. Gina Lollobrigida,
Jennifer Jones (blond!), Peter Lorre, and Robert Morley co-star. The film, shot on
location in Italy, abounds in in-jokes, bizarre characterizations, and giddy plot twists.
The satire was so straight-faced that audiences didn’t get the joke; the studio re-cut
the film in an attempt to salvage it. A cult classic even in its mangled version, Huston’s
loose, loopy movie has now been restored to its original state! “It may be the funniest
mess of all time” (Pauline Kael). “The birthplace of camp” (Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader).
FRIDAY, MAY 19 – 8:40 PM
MONDAY, MAY 22 – 4:00 PM
THURSDAY, MAY 25 – 6:30 PM

Kiss Me Deadly director Robert Aldrich helmed this marvellously macabre set-inHollywood gothic melodrama, recently the subject of the FX cable series Feud: Bette
and Joan (with Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon). Bette Davis and Joan Crawford
are, respectively, Baby Jane Hudson and her sister Blanche, aging actresses holed up
in a crumbling Hollywood mansion. Jane was a vaudeville star in childhood; Blanche
eclipsed her in adulthood to become a Hollywood goddess. Jane is now unhinged;
Blanche is now confined to a wheelchair – and at the mercy of her sister’s sadistic
streak. Originally conceived as a B-movie chiller that might capitalize on the success
of Hitchcock’s Psycho and revive the sagging careers of A-listers (and real-life rivals)
Davis and Crawford, the film became an unexpected box-office hit, was nominated for five
Oscars, and has become an enduring cult classic of psychological horror – and high camp!
SATURDAY, MAY 20 – 8:40 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 21 – 8:40 PM
MONDAY, MAY 22 – 6:00 PM

The Films of Ed Ruscha
Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha has made only three (rarely-shown) films, all dating from near the
start of his career. Recently unearthed and restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, The
Books of Ed Ruscha features Ruscha’s childhood friend, musician and comedy writer Mason Williams,
knocking back sundowners on a patio as he solemnly incants and irreverently manhandles the
limited-edition art objects of the film’s title. Ruscha’s second film, Premium, a self-parody of the
artist as a young man, starring L.A. artist Larry Bell, is a filmic adaptation of his photobook Crackers,
based on a short story by Williams. The last film, Miracle, has artist Jim Ganzer playing an automechanic who undergoes a metamorphosis while repairing the carburetor of a ’65 Ford Mustang.
The Books of Ed Ruscha | 1968-69. 38 min. 16mm
Premium | 1971. 24 min. 16 mm.
Miracle | 1975. 28 min. 16mm.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31 – 7:00 PM

14

ALL THAT JAZZ

All That Jazz
USA 1979. Dir: Bob Fosse. 123 min. DCP

Bob Fosse’s Fellini-inspired phantasmagoria is now routinely cited as one of cinema’s
great musicals and remains a major-studio release of unusual daring and invention.
Roy Scheider, in perhaps his greatest movie role, is libidinous Joe Gideon, a Fosselike Broadway choreographer and filmmaker whose hard-working, hard-living
ways lead to cardiac arrest (and graphic open-heart surgery), encounters with an
angel of death (played by Jessica Lange), and some of the most spectacular (and
hallucinatory) song-and-dance sequences ever committed to the screen. Memorable
musical numbers include “On Broadway,” “Take Off with Us,” and “Bye Bye Life.” The
film was chastised by some for being morbid, self-indulgent, and sourly self-loathing.
Photographed by Fellini regular Giuseppe Rutonno, Fosse’s audacious, blackly-comic
marvel won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for nine Oscars (winning four).
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24 – 8:40 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 26 – 9:00 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 28 – 6:30 PM
MONDAY, MAY 29 – 6:30 PM

Imported 35mm Print!

And the Ship Sails On
(E la nave va)

Italy/France 1983. Dir: Federico Fellini. 132 min. 35mm

Artifice and eccentricity reign charmingly supreme in Fellini’s And the Ship Sails On,
a loving elegy for a vanished era. Fellini and production designer Dante Ferretti
built an enormous make-believe ocean liner on a Cinecittà soundstage to mount
this episodic tale of a colourful group of passengers – aristocrats, impresarios,
and music-world celebrities, all fond, Fellini-style grotesques – who set sail from
Naples on a memorial voyage to scatter the ashes of a famous opera diva. The
time is 1914; encounters with boatloads of refugees and a belligerent battleship are
reminders of the war clouds gathering over Europe. Navigating a cellophane sea under
painted skies, Fellini’s stylized Ship of Fools includes a love-sick rhinoceros, odes to silent
cinema, and plenty of kinky hijinks. “Endearing . . . A gentle comedy that delights in its own
artifice . . . Fellini glories in the clunky machinery of moviemaking” (Jay Scott, Globe and Mail).

"In 1979, artist Ed Ruscha allegedly made a fake rock out of resin and hid it among real ones
somewhere in California’s vast Mojave Desert. Named Rocky II after the Sylvester Stallone
film, the work is never spoken about publicly nor is it listed in any catalogue of Ruscha’s
work. Obsessed with this mystery piece, French artist and Oscar-winner Pierre Bismuth (cowriter of Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) sets out to find it. It’s clear
from the outset of this fantastical tale that Bismuth (in his directorial debut) won’t take a
conventional approach. Instead, he hires a hard-boiled private investigator and two acclaimed
Hollywood screenwriters to pick up the trail” (adapted from Hot Docs Documentary Festival).
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31 – 9:00 PM

Organized by Presentation House Gallery in collaboration with The Cinematheque, as
one of the gallery's last events before the inauguration of its new space, The Polygon
Gallery, on the North Vancouver waterfront. Programmed by Michèle Smith.
presentationhousegallery.org

15

Marseille Trilogy
MARCEL P A G N OL ’ S

NEW RES TO RATIONS

“I want to live in those films.”

U

– Alice Waters

nseen on Vancouver screens in almost three decades, and now brilliantly restored, Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy is one of the
most beloved achievements of the classical French cinema. Playwright Pagnol (1895-1974), a native of Provence and a chronicler
of Provençal culture and life, was a significant figure in French theatre when, early in the sound era, he embraced the cinema
as a means of wider exposure. The trilogy made him internationally famous and helped establish the reputation of French
cinema in the English-speaking world. Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), and César (1936) – the first two adapted from popular
Pagnol plays and directed by, respectively, Alexander Korda and Marc Allégret; the third written directly for the screen and directed by Pagnol
himself – are warm, humorous. semi-naturalistic films set amongst a group of working-class characters on the Marseille waterfront. Acted
by an ensemble cast of magnificent French performers – including the great Raimu, considered by Orson Welles (and others) “the greatest
actor who ever lived” – they depict, in observant, lively, wonderfully unhurried fashion, a span of two decades in the lives of Fanny (Orane
Demazis), a young woman who peddles shellfish in Marseille’s Old Port; Marius (Pierre Fresnay), Fanny’s seafaring former boyfriend; Panisse
(Fernand Charpin), the much-older admirer who pursues Fanny in Marius’s absence; and César (Raimu), the bar owner who is Marius’s father.
Pagnol’s plays and books, often adapted, and his original films, frequently remade, have spawned a wealth of cinema (including Claude
Berri’s popular 1980s films Jean de Florette and Manon des sources, derived from Pagnol novels). The original Marseille Trilogy remains
unsurpassed in translating Pagnol’s universe to the screen. Seeing it for the first time, the famed American chef and organic food champion
Alice Waters, who would name her Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse after the Pagnol character, declared, “I want to live in those films.”

The first instalment in Marcel Pagnol’s
heartfelt, gently comic, warmly rendered
Marseille Trilogy features the original
cast of his hit stage play. Marius (Pierre
Fresnay), who works in the dockside café
of his irascible but lovable father César
(Raimu), and Fanny, a local fishmonger, are
childhood sweethearts, seemingly destined
to be together forever. But restless Marius
cannot resist the call of the sea, leading
Fanny to make a life-altering decision
so that the love of her life can follow his
dreams. Hungarian-born Alexander Korda,
soon to begin a lengthy career in Britain,
directs from Pagnol’s script. “Vastly
enjoyable . . . A fantastic cast; authentic,
unpretentious dialogue peppered with
richly provincial idioms; and fully-realized,
unglamorous characters drawn with loving
detail” (James Monaco, The Movie Guide).

In the second film of Marcel Pagnol’s
great Marseille Trilogy, Fanny, grieving
the departure of her beloved Marius,
allows herself to be wooed and wed by
the middle-aged widower Honoré Panisse
(Fernand Charpin), a prosperous sailmaker.
Unexpectedly, Marius returns home after a
year at sea and seeks to resume his romance
with Fanny. Directed, from Pagnol’s script,
by the prolific Marc Allégret, who two
years later made Zouzou with Josephine
Baker. “Savour the finely-drawn character
studies, the triumphant acting, the warmth,
humanity, and tightly-reined sentimentality
of Pagnol’s whole outlook” (Geoff Brown,
Time Out). “The performances are a joy
to behold and Pagnol’s dialogue displays
supreme comic skill. The film’s success
allowed him to build his own studio near
Marseille” (Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide).

Marcel Pagnol himself directed the third and
most moving instalment of his marvelous
Marseille Trilogy. César – unlike the first
two films, written directly for the screen
and only later adapted for the stage – is
set twenty years after the events of Fanny.
Fanny’s son Césariot (André Fouché) is
now a young man; Fanny’s much-older
husband Panisse is dying; the local priest
is demanding that a long-buried family
secret be revealed. Meanwhile, Marius,
the true love of Fanny’s life, is working as
a mechanic in Toulon. The superb Raimu
again appears as César, Marius’s blustery
father. “A poignant tale of shame, regret,
and misunderstanding that is raised to the
highest level by the fine ensemble acting”
(Roger Bardon, The Rough Guide to Film).
“Today the modest charms and graces of
the Pagnol trilogy seem more precious
than ever” (Geoff Brown, Time Out).

Olivia Boudreau:
Intervals
Olivia Boudreau’s videos, films, and performance works
inspire reflections on the experience of time and the act of
perception. The Montreal-based artist carefully choreographs
precise shots of long duration in works such as L’étuve
(2011), where a group of women appear and disappear as
dense vaporous clouds slowly fill a steam room. Her more
recent works, including Femme allongée (2014), make use
of narrative structure and editing. A woman draped in a
white sheet lies immobile on a table. Like a body prepared
for dissection in an anatomical theatre, she becomes the
focal point for a sequence of activities. Through exchanged
glances and small gestures, Boudreau’s works invite us to
rest in the intervals between stillness and movement.
L’étuve | 2011. 20 min.
Les petits | 2010. 13 min.
La Brèche | 2012, 3 min.
Femme allongée | 2014. 14 min.
Olivia Boudreau’s practice combines video and performance
in works that explore perception, temporality, and the visible
through the long take and, more recently, narrative structure
and editing. Her work has been exhibited across North America
and Europe, including at the Musée d’art contemporain de
Montréal, Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, and Le
Fresnoy in France, and in 2014 was the subject of a major
solo exhibition at the Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery in
Montreal. She is a three-time long-list nominee for the Sobey
Art Award and received Montreal’s Prix Pierre-Ayot in 2011.
Programmed by Isabelle Lynch and Sophie Lynch
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3 – 7:30 PM

Free Screening!
Canada on Screen: Experimental Film and Video
Wavelength and Trapline are presented as part of Canada on
Screen, a celebration of Canada’s 150 essential moving-image
works. Canada on Screen is a year-long, nation-wide program
honouring Canada’s 150th birthday and its rich cinematic
heritage. Screenings are free of charge. For more information,
see page 8.

Almost Empty Rooms:
Wavelength / Trapline
In Person: Ellie Epp (to be confirmed)
DIM Cinema presents a free screening pairing two canonic
works of Canadian experimental film: Michael Snow’s single-take
across a New York loft, perhaps “the most consequential zoom
shot in the history of cinema” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Monthly
Film Bulletin), and Alberta-born, B.C.-based filmmaker Ellie Epp’s
12-shot study of a soon-to-be-demolished public bath in London,
which “maps another way out of structural film toward a cinema
of delicate implication” (Bart Testa, Canadian Encyclopedia).
“If a room could speak about itself this would be the
way it would go.” – Manny Farber on Wavelength
“In a lovely, non-dogmatic way, we are introduced again to the
wonders of watching cinema, not just through an assertion
of the beautiful image, but also through an exploration of the
image’s constituent elements.” – Chris Kennedy on Trapline
Wavelength | Michael Snow/1967. 45 min. 16mm
Trapline | Ellie Epp/1976. 18 min. 16mm
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28 – 7:30 PM

MAD WORLD

A Monthly Mental Health Film Series
Presented by The Cinematheque and the Institute
of Mental Health, UBC Department of Psychiatry

The Cinematheque is pleased to join with the Institute of Mental Health, UBC Department of Psychiatry in presenting
“Frames of Mind,” a monthly event utilizing film and video to promote professional and community education on issues
pertaining to mental health and illness. Screenings, accompanied by presentations and audience
discussions, are held on the third Wednesday of each month.
Series directed by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Director of Public Education, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.
Programmed by Caroline Coutts, film curator, filmmaker, and programmer of “Frames of Mind” since its inception in September 2002.

Vancouver Premiere!

Vancouver Premiere!

Mad World

Call Me Dad

(Yat nim mou ming)

Hong Kong 2016. Dir: Wong Chun. 101 min. DCP

Hong Kong A-listers Shawn Yue and Eric Tsang star in Wong
Chun’s gritty independent drama, which won the Golden Horse
Award (Taiwan’s Oscar) for Best New Director. Made on a
shoestring budget – the two stars took significant pay cuts to
participate – the film portrays the difficult relationship between
a mentally-ill former stockbroker and his estranged truck driver
father, while also shedding light on the more unsavoury aspects
of contemporary Hong Kong. As the film begins, Tung (Yue)
is released into the grudging care of his father (Tsang) after
several years in a mental hospital. In the cramped tenement
his father shares with a multitude of judgmental and illinformed neighbours, Tung must begin the challenging task
of facing up to his troubled past (including the tragic death
of his mother) while embarking on an uncertain future.
Post-screening discussion with Dr. Erin Michalak, Professor in the
Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia
and founder and leader of the Collaborative RESearch Team to
study psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder (CREST.BD).
Co-sponsored by the Collaborative RESearch Team to study
psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder (CREST.BD)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17 – 7:30 PM

Australia 2015. Dir: Sophie Wiesner. 80 min. DCP

In a Melbourne suburb, councillor David Nugent heads up the
Heavy M.E.T.A.L. Group, a behavioural change program aimed
at abusive fathers. (M.E.T.A.L. stands for Men’s Education
Towards Anger and Life.) This documentary follows three men
in the program who have perpetrated family violence, be it
physical, emotional, or through words and manipulation. With
their marriages over or hanging by a thread, and their roles
as fathers slipping away, the men know they have to change.
Nugent holds them accountable; he believes violence is a choice
and that men can change if they have the will to do so. Initially
concentrating on raw and rocky group therapy sessions (often
rife with excuses and justification), the film’s focus eventually
widens to include partners, children, and culture, deepening
our understanding of what kind of change is required, both
individually and societally, to address this complex problem.
Post-screening discussion with Dr. John Oliffe, Professor in
the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia.
Founder and lead investigator of UBC’s Men’s Health
Research program, his work focuses on masculinities and their
influence on men’s health, relationships, and quality of life.
Co-sponsored by UBC’s Men’s Health Research, a suite
of programs, projects, and resources to promote men’s mental
and physical health.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21 – 7:30 PM

TÊTE À TÊTE À TÊTE

Cinema Sunday
An Afternoon Film Program for
Children and Their Families

$6 Children & Youths (under 18) $9 Adults (Cinematheque membership not required)
In celebration of Canada’s big 150 (or sesquicentennial), Cinema Sunday patriotically presents “Made in Canada,” a yearlong
engagement with family films hailing from the True North! Each month, we’ll screen an all-ages movie that showcases
Canada’s extraordinary, diverse talents – both in front of and behind the camera – as well as the cities, landscapes, and cultures
that make this country our home.
Films will be introduced by Vancouver film history teacher and critic Michael van den Bos.

Kaj Pindal: An Animated
Retrospective
Danish-born Canadian animator and educator Kaj Pindal
(b. 1927) is a gem of the National Film Board of Canada’s
world-renowned animation department. With his strong, simple
graphics, quirky humour, and whimsical handling of hefty social
issues – PSAs were his specialty! – Pindal created, between
1957 and 1988, a body of short films for the Board that evinced
a master animator (and satirist) at work. Today, Pindal is
perhaps best known as the creator of the Emmy-winning PBS
children’s program Peep and the Big Wide World – originally
a 1962 NFB short, made from black-and-white drawings on
adding-machine tape. But his most acclaimed and accomplished
work is undoubtedly the Oscar-nominated What on Earth!
(1966), a brilliant, biting commentary on urbanization and the
automotive explosion, told from the perspective of a Martian
field reporter who, quite rightly, assumes that our planet is
inhabited by cars, with human beings their pesky parasites!
To celebrate Kaj Pindal’s 90th birthday this year (Happy
Birthday, Kaj!), we present a select retrospective of
the animator’s eclectic work for the NFB, including his
masterpiece What on Earth!, his jazzy art installation for
Expo ’70, The City (Osaka) (1970), his imaginative antismoking announcement, King Size (1968), and more!
Hors-d’oeuvre | 1960. Kaj Pindal et al./1960 7 min.
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a
Fly | Derek Lamb/1964. 5 min.
What on Earth! | Les Drew, Kaj Pindal/1966. 9 min.
King Size | Kaj Pindal/1968. 6 min.
The City (Osaka) | Kaj Pindal/1970. 7 min.
Caninabis | Kaj Pindal/1979. 9 min.
Peep and the Big Wide World |Kaj Pindal/1988. 34 min
Total program: approx. 77 min.
SUNDAY, JUNE 18 – 1:00 PM

SUNDAY, MAY 21 – 1:00 PM

18

HORS-D’OEUVRE

CHRIS MARKER, NEVER EXPLAIN,
NEVER COMPLAIN

7 FOIS CHRIS MARKER
Presented with The Cinematheque
Chris Marker, long considered the inventor of the film essay, was both a world traveller and a time traveller. Throughout
his peripatetic life, he remained largely a secret cinéaste, although his name and his films (La Jetée, or Sans soleil, ranked
third in Sight & Sound’s poll of the greatest documentaries ever made) have influenced generations of filmmakers.
Three years after the retrospective at Centre Pompidou, organized after his death (he died on his 91st birthday),
and in advance of the Cinémathèque française’s encompassing multimedia event planned for May 2018, I am proud
to present to Vancouver audiences 7 FOIS CHRIS MARKER, a selection of Marker’s rarely screened films. The timing
is curious, and like so much of Chris’s work, serendipitously entwined with our current moment in history.
– Thierry Garrel, Program Curator
Chris Marker, Never Explain, Never
Complain | Jean-Marie Barbe, Arnaud Lambert, 2016

Le Tombeau d’Alexandre (The Last
Bolshevik) | Chris Marker, 1993

“Who is Chris Marker?” is the question posed by the directors/
interlocutors of this new documentary, every answer revealing
a different reality. One thing is clear, over the length of
his career the elusive auteur was never content to do or be
only one thing. Writer, filmmaker, photographer, polymath,
cat lover — there is no single term that quite suffices.

Chris Marker’s expansive, nay, insanely encompassing
portrait of his friend and colleague Aleksandr Ivanovich
Medvedkin is composed of six different letters, each
corresponding to a period of Medvedkin’s life and work.

Le Fond de l’air est rouge (A Grin Without
a Cat) | Chris Marker, 1977
Une Journée d’Andrei Arsenevitch (One Day In The
Life Of Andrei Arsenevich) | Chris Marker, 1999
Marker’s portrait of his friend Andrei Tarkovsky, edited
some twelve years after Tarkovsky’s death for the collection
Cinéma, de notre temps (Cinema of Our Times), is an
extraordinary love letter from one filmmaker to another,
and a memento mori of the most profound kind.

Here is Chris Marker’s magnum opus in all its ferocious
intelligence and scale. More relevant than it was even
forty years earlier, this tour-de-force work is a guide,
seemingly torn from the current moment, made up of
the folly and greatness of the human experiment.

L’Héritage de la chouette (The Owl’s
Legacy) | Chris Marker, 1989
Le Souvenir d’un avenir (Remembrance of Things
to Come) | Chris Marker, Yannick Bellon, 2001
This vivid portrait of photographer Denise Bellon, who
pioneered the art of photojournalism, is, like Marker’s
most famous work (La Jetée), composed out of still
images. Circuitous and discursive, the narrative is
pinned in place by Bellon’s extraordinary eye.

The legendary 13-part series, commissioned by Arte and the
Onassis Foundation (that kept Marker’s work unavailable
for twenty years), alights at DOXA in its first three
episodes: SYMPOSIUM or Accepted Ideas, OLYMPISM or
Imaginary Greece, DEMOCRACY or The City of Dreams.
Program notes adapted from texts provided by
DOXA, written by Dorothy Woodend
For screening dates, and to purchase tickets, please visit doxafestival.ca

Chats perchés (The Case of the Grinning
Cat) | Chris Marker, 2004

Cinematheque members will receive a DOXA membership
for all 7 FOIS CHRIS MARKER screenings.

A more fitting film for our electoral moment is hard to imagine
than Chris Marker’s last long-form work. The film has the
serendipitous timing that is the hallmark of great art: it is
always relevant, and au courant — sometimes painfully so.

FREE EVENT

The Cinematheque’s Education
and Outreach Showcase
Join The Cinematheque’s Education and Outreach team for a special evening devoted to youth films, media
literacy, and informed discussion about how today’s young connect with our complex and multi-faceted media
landscape. Screenings of youth-made works from some of our 2016-17 programs – including Status Update:
Critical Creations on Social Media; Canada on Screen: Youth Interpretations of Canada’s 150th; and the TREK
Environmental Education Documentary Projects – will be accompanied by explorations of crucial topics for
youth today: Social Media and the Self; and Dissecting Fake News: Media Literacy in the Post-Truth Era.
We welcome you to learn more about The Cinematheque’s outreach programs and immerse
yourself in the technology-mediated perspectives of today’s young people!
TUESDAY, JUNE 20 - 6:30 PM

THE CINEMATHEQUE PROGRAM GUIDE
Program Notes: Jim Sinclair, additional program
notes by Shaun Inouye
Advertising: Lizzie Brotherston
Proofreading: Lizzie Brotherston
Design: Marc Junker
Published six times a year with a bi-monthly
circulation of 10–15,000. Printed by Van Press
Printers.
ADVERTISING
To advertise in this Program Guide or in our
theatre before screenings, please email
advertising@theCinematheque.ca or call
604.688.8202.
SUPPORT
The Cinematheque is a charitable not-forprofit arts society. We rely on financial support
from public and private sources. Donations are
gratefully accepted — a tax receipt will be issued
for all donations of $50 or more. To make a
donation or for more information, please call our
administration office at 604.688.8202.
The Cinematheque gratefully acknowledges the
financial support of the following agencies: